The prediction and control of temperature distributions in tissue by the thermal conditions on the tissue surface is an issue that is novel to the multilayer bio-heat problem. Acceptable thermal conditions on the boundary can be obtained by using a known temperature field inside the tissue. The inverse solution to this problem was deduced from a numerical approach combined with the concept of future time. The problem with inverse bio-heat conduction is the slow heat-wave propagation speed, which makes the traversing temperature difficult to obtain. Three cases are presented in this paper to demonstrate the features and validity of the proposed method. The estimated result were compared to confirm the validity and accuracy of the proposed method. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.